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The concept of man versus machine is at least as old as the industrial revolution, but this phenomenon tends to be most acutely felt during economic downturns and fragile recoveries. And yet, it would be a mistake to think we are right now simply experiencing the painful side of a boom and bust cycle. Certain jobs have gone away for good, outmoded by machines. Since technology has such an insatiable appetite for eating up human jobs, this phenomenon will continue to restructure our economy in ways we can"t immediately foresee. When there is rapid improvement in the price and performance of technology, jobs that were once thought to be immune from automation suddenly become threatened. This argument has attracted a lot of attention, via the success of the book Race Against the Machine , by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, who both hail from MITs Center for Digital Business. This is a powerful argument, and a scary one. And yet, John Hagel, author of The Power of Pull and other books, says Brynjolfsson and McAfee miss the reason why these jobs are so vulnerable to technology in the first place. Hagel says we have designed jobs in the U.S. that tend to be "tightly scripted" and "highly standardized" ones that leave no room for "individual initiative or creativity." In short, these are the types of jobs that machines can perform much better at than human beings. That is how we have put a giant target sign on the backs of American workers, Hagel says. It"s time to reinvent the formula for how work is conducted, since we are still relying on a very 20th century notion of work, Hagel says. In our rapidly changing economy, we more than ever need people in the workplace who can take initiative and exercise their imagination "to respond to unexpected events." That"s not something machines are good at. They are designed to perform very predictable activities. As Hagel notes, Brynjolfsson and McAfee indeed touched on this point in their book. We need to reframe race against the machine as race with the machine. In our works, we need to look at the ways in which machines can augment human labor rather than replace it. So then the problem is not really about technology, but rather, "how do we innovate our institutions and our work practices?"

单选题

According to the first paragraph, economic downturns would ______

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】

[解析] 第一段的内容比较抽象，它重点是说以机器为代表的技术进步对就业造成的不良影响。作者在本段第二句提到，这种不良影响在经济衰退和恢复时期更容易被强烈地感受到。在第一段中，boom and bust cycle指经济周期性的兴衰，词组for good意为“永远”，而所谓restructure economy指改变经济结构。

单选题

The authors of Race Against the Machine argue that ______

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】

[解析] 第二段提到《与机器赛跑》这本书，书的主要观点陈述在第二段第一句，这句话的基本意思是：当技术性能变得越来越好，而价格变得越来越低时，机器就会获得广泛应用，机器的广泛应用必然导致更多工作环节的自动化，使机器在很多工作环节上代替了人力，减少了人的就业机会。词组be immune from意为“免受……的影响”。

单选题

Hagel argues that jobs in the U.S. are often ______

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】

[解析] 在第三段中，Hagel批评了《与机器赛跑》这本书，认为作者们没有解释清楚为什么某些工作更容易被技术代替。在第四段，Hagel对这个问题做出了解释，即美国的工作都是严格按剧本创造的“标准化”工作，其中不涉及个人创造力，而机器最擅长做标准化工作，不善于创造性的工作。这样，美国工人身上就像被贴上了靶子，很容易被技术击中，成为技术革新的直接受害者。本段中，script作动词时意为“为……创作剧本”，tightly scripted是说这些工作严格按照事先设定的程序完成。词组leave room for意为“为……留余地”，put a target sign on the backs of American workers是比喻，意思是说美国工人容易成为技术革新的靶子或受害者。